{"id":283,"date":"2012-07-05T09:10:59","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T16:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/?p=283"},"modified":"2012-07-04T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T00:00:14","slug":"gen-mixing-teaching-in-a-cross-generational-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/cmns\/2012\/07\/05\/gen-mixing-teaching-in-a-cross-generational-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Gen Mixing: Teaching in a cross-generational classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the winter 2012 semester I taught a course (CMNS 380) called The Cross-Generational Workplace: Closing the Communication Gap<\/a>.\u00a0\"group<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

I designed this course to provide students with the skills needed to interact and communicate effectively within a day-to-day workplace environment and build on the potential that a cross-generational workplace can have.<\/p>\n

The workplace now has at least four generations of employees. Gone are the long held stereotypes of generational level expertise. Younger people are bringing technologically advanced skills to the workplace; and experienced older people are working well past traditional retirement age to contribute their intellectual capital.<\/p>\n

The course turned out even better than I planned. You have to love it when that happens!<\/p>\n

The classroom mirrored the cross-generational phenomenon occurring in our workplaces.\u00a0 There were students from every defined generational group: the Traditionalists, the Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials (also known as Gen Y).<\/p>\n

As a class we even had a great debate about how we felt about the new labels being given to the generation just about to enter university.\u00a0 Depending on what you read you will see this new group of students being called Gen Now, Gen Net, Gen Z, the Internet Gen \u2013 and even Gen 911.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to watch which of these labels will stick!<\/p>\n

So what is it like teaching a cross-generational class?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like to think of teaching this course as “gen mixing.” This meant that my teaching and learning strategies needed to be just that : \u00a0a mix!<\/p>\n

There were print materials, formal lectures, online discussions, visual student lead presentations, creative group collaboration assignments, student lead online presentations and social media engagement.\u00a0 The course was delivered as a hybrid; some weeks we met face-to-face and sometimes we held the class virtually.<\/p>\n

We mixed it up!<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the class\u2019s favourite assignments was the course blog.\u00a0 This was done instead of a formal paper.\u00a0 What the students appreciated about this assignment is that they got to see each other\u2019s writing, and learn from each other.\u00a0 And for those students without techno-literate skills \u2013 they had the chance to embrace a new communication avenue.<\/p>\n

Each student created a blog posting on a topic related to cross-generational communication that interested them. Though the course blog was erased at the conclusion of the course, over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you five student blog contributions:<\/p>\n